Notes on
Anselm Clarkson
of Louisa County, Virginia
by Neil Allen Bristow
Anselm Clarkson appears in Louisa County records as early as 1746 when he was holding land on "the lower side of Cub Creek, on the north side of the Pamunkey."1 Two years later in 1748, he had joined with Thomas Jackson, Josh. Fox, David Crenshaw, and Jeremiah Glenn to procession land in Fredericksville Parish (which included parts of both Louisa and Albemarle).2 There had been an earlier marriage (1713) in New Kent between David Clarkson and Elizabeth Jackson, so Anselm's neighbor Thomas Jackson may have had a familial connection.3
Anselm is placed at the Cub Creek location as late as 1759.4 Later documents do not mention the location of his land on Cub Creek, but references to the same "137 acres" make clear he had not moved.
The best information about his family comes from his will, dated 1762, which for some reason was never fully probated.5
Will of Anselm Clarkson of Louisa
In the Name of God Amen.
I, Ansalm Clarkson, Senr: of Louisa County & Fredericksville Parish, Planter, Being very sick & weak of Body But of perfect Mind & Memory: Thanks be given [unto] God for the same. But calling to Mind the Mortal[ity of the] Body & knowing that it is appointed for all men once [to die?] I do make and ordain this my last Will & Testament.
That is to say: first and principally of all I recommend my s[oul] into the hands of God Almighty that gave it; nothing Doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall Receive the same again with joy, & my body to ye Discretion of my Executors hereafter named to be Buried in Christian like & Decent Manner.
And as touching on my Worldly Goods wherewith it ha[th] pleased God to bless me with I give Devise & Disp[ose] of in the manner & form following:
(To Wit) To Elizabeth Clarkson my well Beloved Wife (after all legual demands against my estate) I gi[ve] & Bequeath one Feather Bed & Furniture & all other House hold Goods: as with Movable as Immovable to h[ave] & to hold as her own proper good for life then to be Equally [divided] amongst My Well Beloved sons that shall be then living.
I also give to my well Beloved & Hopefull Daught[er]
Susana Clarkson one Feather Bed & Furniture
also Eliza: Clarkson 1 Do.
also to Mary Clarkson 1 Do.
also to Martha Clarkson 1 Do.
also to Mourning Clarkson 1 Do.
also to Julius Clarkson my youngest well Beloved Son I likewise give one Feather Bed & Furniture to Receive Them when they shall Marry or come of age or be[fore] if need so Require to have & to Hold as their own prop[er] Good.
I also will that after the Decease of my well beloved Wife Eliza: Clarkson that Julius Clarkson my Youngest & Hopefull Son may have the Tract of Land whereon I now live Containing one Hundred & Thirty Seven Acres lying on Cub Creek in Louisa County Without any [...] to have & to hold forever as his own proper Right.
I likewise constitute & ordain David Clarkson & Peter Clarkson my well Beloved sons the whole & sole Executors of this my last Will & Testament.
In Witness hereof I have hereunto set my Hand & Seal this Twenty & Sixth day of February in the Year of our Lord God..............1762.
| In Presence of:
Wm Clarkson Edward Webster Eliza: Poindexter | Ansalm Clarkson Senr: |
The will is worth a little study. Although the testator does name his wife Elizabeth, and lists their daughters (probably in order of birth): Susana, Eliza, Mary, Martha, and Mourning, he does not list in the same fashion all his sons by name, mentioning only Julius as the recipient of the Cub Creek land and David and Peter as executors. He does mention "My Well Beloved sons that shall be then living" as residual legatees following the death of his wife.
The terms of the will suggest that he had previously provided for his older sons, since they did not receive specific bequests, but were to share in the household goods on their mother's death (surely a provision included just to tie up loose ends). He probably had given them land and/or slaves. I haven't seen anything in the Louisa Deed Books, but if the gifts were recorded, they might be in an Order Book or Minutes or whichever book was at the clerk's hand. Or maybe in loose papers that got put aside and never recorded at all.
Although the testator's identifying himself as "Ansalm Clarkson Senr:" implies that he had a son of the same name, it proves no more than that there was another Anselm Clarkson in the neighborhood who was younger. The younger Anselm (not mentioned at all in the will) and William (who was a witness) might have been nephews or cousins. William might have been a brother for that matter. It is tempting to think that both Anselm and William might be older sons of the testator, but the document by itself does not identify them as such. However, the William Clarkson who married Martha Pledge in 1761 is identified as the son of 'Ansalm Clarkson' by his marriage bond.6
Although Anselm began his 1762 will with the words "Being very sick & weak of Body" he may have recovered and lived on for another five years: In the 1767 Louisa tithe lists "Ansalem Clarkson" was charged with Julius (who was tithable but had not yet attained his majority) and 137 acres of land.7 The following year Julius was charged to Mrs Elizabeth Clarkson, indicating that the elder Anselm had died and his widow, Elizabeth was responsible for Julius.8 In 1771 Elizabeth Clarkson was charged with 137 acres and one slave named Jammey, but not Julius.9 On 14 Dec 1772 Elizabeth sold her 137 acres in Saint Martin's Parish to Thomas Jackson (who, as noted above, may have been kin to her late husband).10
The Elizabeth named in Anselm's will and the tithe lists was most likely Elizabeth Butts. As Samuel W, Hughes noted, that name is repeated among Julius' descendants. Julius' daughter who married John McConnell in Bourbon County, Christmas 1804, and moved to Morgan County, Illinois, was named Elizabeth Butts Clarkson. Hughes observed that the name also appeared as Elizabeth Butts Lewis, daughter of Julius' sister, Susan [Susannah] Clarkson, and John Lewis.11 However, Elizabeth's place in the Butts family has not been established. David Clarkson and John Butts were neighbors and business colleagues in New Kent County in the early 1700s.12 It is possible that Elizabeth was John's daughter, or perhaps the daughter of the Thomas Butts who served as Sheriff of Hanover County from around 1710 to 1715.
Since none of their daughters was married by the date of Anselm's will, their married names must be found from other sources. Based on Hughes' research, it seems that the Susan who married John Lewis about 1769 (as his second wife) was a member of this family.13 Mary and Mourning did not marry and accompanied their brother Julius to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where Mary died in 1825, leaving her small estate to their sister, Mourning Clarkson, to pass on Mourning's death to Julius' children.14 Her piety was an inspiration to her grandniece, Mary Beckley Bristow, who remarked how glad "I was, many years ago, to find the old songs and letters written by my dear old Aunt Molly Clarkson, who departed this life when I was seventeen years old. Oh, how it rejoices my heart to find that the same things treasured up by this dear, departed saint, whom I had dearly loved, and with whom I was vain enough to think myself a favorite, and one who was so highly esteemed by all who knew her as a christian, should so exactly suit my case. Very precious were these old relics to me in the first years of my pilgrimage."15
Elizabeth is untraced, and the Martha Clarkson who married Nathaniel Parrish in 1786 is likely a cousin.
Among Anselm and Elizabeth's sons, David apparently joined in the migration to Kentucky, where he lived into his dotage. Many years later Julius' granddaughter, Mary Beckley Bristow, recalled an elderly and senile uncle:16
My Mother has been confined to her room and mostly to her bed for six weeks with Erysipelas. ... Oh, Sarah, you cannot imagine how I felt about my dear old Mother when I thought she was about to lose her mind. I could neither ask for her life nor her death. I could not bear the idea of giving her up, and yet I thought death preferable to the distressing state of mind she appeared to be in. At times again she would be quite cheerful. My mind reverted to the time when I was watching Uncle Davy and Aunt Mima who had both lost their reason before their death, and my prayer — yes Sarah, my prayer — was that I might never see either of my parents in such a situation.
David and Peter were of age when Anselm made his will in 1762 since they could serve as executors. It is reasonable to assume that they were two of his eldest sons. They were probably born in the early 1730s. (Mary Bristow was born in 1808, and Uncle David could have been in his nineties when she was still a girl.) A David Clarkson appears in the census in Bourbon in 1800, 1810 and 1820, but this may have been his (putative) nephew, the son of the Anselm Clarkson who died in Pendleton County, Kentucky. This Anselm said in his will, dated 26 Nov 1816, that he was "aged about eighty years" which would place his birth about 1736.
What became of Peter is not known. A Peter appears in the Bourbon census of 1810, but not 1800; he had married Polly Bedford in 1806. He was born about 1787, and lived on until after 1860 with his children in Boone County. His connection to Anselm of Louisa is unknown; he was of an age appropriate to Anselm's grandchildren.
William is untraced beyond his marriage to Martha Pledge (above), which resulted in at least one daughter, Mary.17 The Pledge family moved to North Carolina, and whether William went with them is not known. (In another link between the families, Martha's younger brother, William Pledge, had married an Ann Clarkson in 1773.18 She was a daughter of John Clarkson of Goochland, and probably a cousin of the Louisa family.) The William who went to Bourbon County, according to Woods, was the son of Peter and grandson of David of Amherst. William and his brother, also named Julius, had been merchants near Milton in Albemarle.19
I suspect that Anselm, the subject of this sketch, was a son of the John Clarkson who died in Goochland in 1759. John's son David may be the one who went to Amherst and is the father of the several Albemarle Clarksons mentioned by Woods, which would make Julius and his siblings first cousins of those cited by Woods.
Until more hidden documents come to light, tracing all the children of Anselm and identifying his place among the Clarksons of Virginia will remain puzzles.
1 14 May 1746 (Deeds A: 221-222.); and 23 Feb 1749 (Deeds A: 341) in Rosalie Edith Davis, Louisa County Deed Books A and B 1741-1759 (Bellevue, WA: Rosalie E. Davis, 1976), 27, 46. (Pamunkey was an alternate name for the Anna River, and Cub Creek parallels modern US 522 south from US 33.)
2 Rosalie Edith Davis, Fredericksville Parish Vestry Book, 1742-1787 (Manchester, MO: Heritage Trails, 1981), 11. Since the "metes and bounds" method of describing property relied on noting sometimes transient natural features (such as "a large oak tree") to establish property lines, members of the local parish vestry were required from time to time to go out and inspect the boundaries in person.
3 David Clarkson and Elizabeth Jackson was married 9br 18th, 1713. Parish Register of Saint Peter's, New Kent County, Virginia, 1680-1787 (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1988 [1904]), 47.
4 Deeds B: 328-330. Davis, Louisa Deeds, 147.
5 "Louisa Wills Not Fully Proven, 1757-1902" pp. 14-1 and 14-2. 'Will of Ansalm Clarkson, Senr.' The document was not included in the regular Louisa Will Books and thus is absent from the usual indexes and films. My deep appreciation to Nancy Bunker Bowen, who provided me with a photocopy.
6 Kathleen Booth Williams, Marriages of Louisa County, Virginia, 1766-1815 ([Alexandria, VA?]: K.B. Williams, c1959), 17. The bond was actually listed as in Goochland and the wedding was performed by Rev Robert Douglas, who included the event in his Register, 15. "Clarkson, Will: & Martha Pledge, both in this parish 1761 Mar: 14." (p 5 in original.)
7 Rosalie Edith Davis, Louisa County, Virginia, Tithables and Census, 1743-1785 (Manchester, MO: Heritage Trails, 1981), 5. The entry might be a clerical error; if Anselm had died, the clerk erred in not charging the tithes to 'the estate of Anselm Clarkson'. Alternatively, this entry might have been for Anselm Jr.
8 Ibid., 8.
9 Ibid., 11.
10 Louisa Deeds D-1/2: 426-427. Davis, Louisa County Deed Books C, C1/2, D and D1/2, 1759-1774 (Manchester, MO: Rosalie E. Davis, 1977), 140.
11 Samuel W. Hughes to Mrs Martha Woodruff, 6 Mar 1934. George Harrison Sanford King papers, Virginia Historical Society. Mssl K5823 a FA1 sec 1.
12 Patent Book 9: 317; 611. Cited in Nell Marion Nugent, Cavaliers and Pioneers: Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, v3 1695-1732 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1979), 190; 86.
13 Edgar Woods tentatively gave her father as David of Amherst (Albemarle County in Virginia (Harrisonburg, VA: C.J. Carrier, 1982 [1901]), 166), but I find Hughes more persuasive.
14 Bourbon Wills G: 275. It was dated 1 Aug 1822, proved Apr 1825. Her nephew, Reuben Lewis Clarkson was the executor.
15 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 35. Letter 8 Jan 1854 to Sarah Jane Clarkson.
16 Bristow, Aunt Mary's Diary, 45.
17 W[illiam] Mac[Farlane] Jones, ed., The Douglas Register (Baltimore : Genealogical Publishing Company, 1966 [1928]), 174. "Will: Clarkson & Martha Pledge a Daughter named Mary born June 15, 1761. Baptized 1761 Nov: 8." (p. 61 in original.)
18 Douglas Register, 59. "Clarkson, Ann & Will: Pledge, both in Goochland. Feb 16, 1773." (p 8 in original.).
19 Woods, Albemarle, 166.
